The invention relates to a lathe, in particular a multi-spindle automatic lathe having an apparatus for machining the rear side of a workpiece and a take-over device for removing a workpiece machined at its front side from a primary workpiece spindle of the machine and for transferring the workpiece to a machining station for rear side machining. In one embodiment, the take-over device comprises a gripper traversable parallel or coaxial to the workpiece spindle between it and a rear side of the machining chamber of the machine, and a translation device, which takes over the workpiece from the gripper for the transfer to the machining station for the rear side machining.
Such a lathe is for example known from DE 32 25 320 A1, expressly incorporated herein by reference. In this known machine, the machining station for the rear side machining is provided at a rear wall of the machining chamber, where the workpieces removed from the primary workpiece spindle by the gripper are transferred to the machining station with the help of the translation device. The arrangement of the machining station for the rear side machining at the rear wall of the of the machining chamber, in which are located the tools for the front side machining of the workpieces clamped in the spindle drum, additionally limits the space. That is, the paths along which the various tools can move for the front side machining and for the rear side machining, respectively, are comparatively small, in order that the various tools do not collide with one another during the machining of the various workpieces. Therefore, only relatively simple machining operations can be carried out at the rear side of the workpieces, after these have been removed from the primary workpiece spindle and received in the machining station for the rear side machining, whereas the machining processes are only allowed to take up short displacement paths of the tools.
There is a need for a lathe of the above-mentioned type with which machining steps which are comparatively complicated and possibly need several tools can be carried out at the machining station for the rear side machining, without having the danger of collisions with the tools for the front side machining.